“Potholes will be here as long as the ice and snow is here,” said Merek Ross of Holyoke.

As the sun melts the snow during the day, the cold temperatures turn it all into ice at night. With all that water on the road, potholes are expanding, and new ones are forming.

“It’s atrocious for a state like this to have roads that are in such poor condition with all the tax payer money being utilized, I don’t see it being utilized for anything worthwhile,” Mary Sadlowski of Easthampton told 22News.

Potholes wrecked so many cars along Route 5, the Route 5 Tunnel in West Springfield had to be closed for six weeks of repairs. Drivers said weekly snowfall certainly isn’t helping prevent more potholes from forming.

“Every time the plows go by it makes it worse and worse so if we’re going to have more snow and they don’t do anything about the ones we have, they’re going to just get more and I’m sure the ones we have will just get worse,” said Tom Phelan of Chicopee.

All of this melting snow is filling in the potholes on the road, making it difficult for drivers to see just how deep those holes are. Many people said they can’t wait another month for the end of winter to have these potholes repaired. It’s getting too difficult to safely drive around them all.

“I think they should start right away, but I have noticed that they are starting to fill it with gravel, so that’s some improvement,” said John Cummings who was visiting Holyoke from New York.

Drivers hope gravel is just a quick fix until road crews can make permanent repairs to prevent potholes from becoming a year-long problem in Western Massachusetts.